Episode 46 (22nd May 1961)

Plot

Ivan had simply forgotten to register his change of address but Elsie is furious with Arthur for embarrassing her son-in-law in front of the Rovers's regulars. Concepta wears her new dress for the Whit Monday picnic trip to Blackpool. Annie teases her that Harry might pop the question today. The coach arrives to pick up the regulars at 9.00am but Annie refuses to let Jack go unless his brother Jim turns up as arranged to look after the pub. As she boards the coach, Ena harangues the driver for his driving the previous year. Dot turns up to join Elsie and Arthur for the day. Ivan and Linda remain behind as he has to work and he wants to paint the baby's cot. Lucille shows off her Whit Walk dress. Jim turns up at the last minute to a frosty welcome from Annie. Jean and Christine prepare to spend the day out on a trip with fellow workers from Elliston's Raincoat Factory but their plans are interrupted when Mr and Mrs Stark turn up. Christine speaks up for their daughter's freedom to choose her lifestyle. The Starks agree with her and apologise to Jean for the way that they've treated her. They invite her and Christine out on a daytrip with them. Ena, Martha, Minnie, Len, Elsie, Arthur, Annie, Jack, Billy, Concepta, Dot, Harry, Lucille and Doreen set off for Blackpool where they divide up once they arrive. Harry, Concepta and Lucille visit the Zoo and feed the monkeys. Ena and Martha drag a scared Minnie into the lift to take them up the Tower but in the end she is the only one who enjoys the ascent. Len and Jack laughy at saucy postcards and even Annie finds them funny. Billy and Doreen enjoy each other's company on the various Pleasure Beach rides and are joined on them by Elsie, Dot, Arthur and Len. The three old ladies end the afternoon with a paddle. The residents all congregate at the Jubilee Café for tea before their departure where Elsie and Ena snipe at each other. Annie doesn't approve of Billy courting Doreen. Elsie gets tired of Arthur clinging to her all the time. The Starks enjoy their day out with Christine. They all agree that Jean can stay with her for a while longer. On the coach back home, Harry proposes to a happy Concepta.

Cast

Regular cast

Concepta Riley - Doreen Keogh
Harry Hewitt - Ivan Beavis
Lucille Hewitt - Jennifer Moss
Doreen - Angela Crow
Billy Walker - Kenneth Farrington
Ena Sharples - Violet Carson
Martha Longhurst - Lynne Carol
Minnie Caldwell - Margot Bryant
Len Fairclough - Peter Adamson
Elsie Tanner - Patricia Phoenix
Jack Walker - Arthur Leslie
Annie Walker - Doris Speed
Linda Cheveski - Anne Cunningham
Ivan Cheveski - Ernst Walder
Christine Hardman - Christine Hargreaves

Guest cast

Places

Coronation Street exterior
Rovers Return Inn - Public
9 Coronation Street - Back room and hallway
13 Coronation Street - Front room and hallway
Coach
Blackpool - Golden Mile, Tower and Zoo, Louis Tussauds', Pleasure Beach, beach near Central Pier and Jubilee Café
Road back to Weatherfield

Notes

This episode features scenes shot on location in Blackpool. These sequences, totalling four minutes of screen time, were filmed without dialogue and broadcast with an accompanying specially-commissioned arrangement of an incidental music soundtrack of I Do Like To be Beside the Seaside played on the piano and well as various other dubbed sounds. This was not an unusual practice in television at the time, to reduce the expense of dubbing edited soundtracks on to film. For example, several filmed sequences in the prestigious 1967 BBC serial The Forsyte Saga have several silent film inserts dubbed with music or birdsong before cutting back to studio videotaped shots which have dialogue.
16mm filming took place on Saturday 13th May 1961 and potential onlookers were forewarned of the event on the day before in the local paper, the West Lancashire Evening Gazette, when they said “Tomorrow morning, at around seven o’clock a coach will leave the “Rovers Return” somewhere near Salford, and arrive in Blackpool soon after nine o’clock.” The cast of characters who would take part were listed (omitting Dot Greenhalgh and Doreen Lostock) and helpfully a list of the locations to be used was printed, saying that filming was expected to take more than five hours. The following Monday's edition published a photograph of Violet Carson, Margot Bryant and Lynne Carol at the top of the Tower with Howard Baker and cameraman John Robins. An accompanying article said that the coach with fourteen cast members and eight technicians left Manchester at 7.15am and arrived in the resort at 9.00am for the first filming which took place in the Tower Zoo with shots of Lucille Hewitt throwing nuts at a “co-operative monkey”. Filming then proceeded at the top of the Tower which, ironically, only Margot Bryant had visited before and which for Violet Carson and Lynne Carol - two residents of the resort for many years - was a new experience. The next filming was on the beach itself for the paddle sequences and the promenade as well as Louis Tussaud’s. The afternoon was spent at the Pleasure Beach. The article confirmed that no dialogue was recorded on location. One of the floor managers was said to have had a fruitless search in the morning for a hat with the famous “Kiss Me Quick” invitation on it.
Daran Little's book, 40 Years of Coronation Street states in error that the filming for Episode 142 (23rd April 1962) was the first location filming conducted for the programme.
Although Westward Television was launched on Saturday 29th April, 1961, the station initially opted out of transmitting Coronation Street only joining the programme with Episode 48 on 29th May. The show was therefore not fully networked for the interim four-week period.
TV Times: Every front door hides a story. Behind the front doors in Coronation Street are stories of excitement and joy, pathos and humour (This generic synopsis did not appear in all regional editions)
Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 4,076,000 homes (chart placing unknown). This low figure is explained by it being transmitted on Whit Monday Bank Holiday.
This episode was included on the Granada and Windsong Video Coronation Street 1961 released on 5th November 1990.

Notable dialogue

Annie Walker: "I hope this isn't serious?"
Billy Walker: "What?"
Annie Walker: "You and Doreen."
Billy Walker: "Is it 'eck. I'm only havin' a fling, mum."
Jack Walker: "Well I think she's quite a nice girl."
Annie Walker: "Oh yes, but you're the one who likes mustard on chips!"

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Elsie Tanner: "Oh, I do wish they'd hurry up and serve us."
Ena Sharples: "Aye, some folk are very 'ungry."
Elsie Tanner (posh-voiced): "Was you saying something, Mrs Sharples, or was you chewin' a brick?"

May 1961 episodes
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